President Clinton has promised the US will seek out those responsible for a terrorist attack on an American warship in Yemen which left six sailors dead, 11 missing, presumed dead, and 35 injured.
Mr Clinton immediately sent investigative teams from the FBI, the State Department and the Pentagon to the Yemen. He ordered all US ships in the region out of port and put land forces on high alert.
Explosives tore a 40 foot by 20 foot hole in the hull of the USS Cole as it was getting ready for refuelling in Aden, capital of Yemen, which was until recently on a US blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism. No one has so far claimed responsibility. The warship was on its way to the Persian Gulf to monitor the sanctions against Iraq.
A grave President Clinton, who yesterday saw the Middle East peace process crumbling, said "we will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable". It was a "despicable and cowardly act" if, as believed, it was the work of terrorists, he said. But if they believed this would "deter us from our mission of promoting peace and security in the Middle East, they will fail utterly," he said.
The ease with which one of the most modern and heavily armed destroyers of the US navy was crippled by terrorist action has shocked Americans. The explosion blew a huge hole in the steel hull when a small boat which had been helping the Cole to moor at a buoy came alongside with two men on board.
First reports said the men were "standing to attention", leading to speculation that it was a suicide attack by Islamic militants.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, spoke to the President of Yemen, Mr Ali Abdallah Saleh, who pledged his co-operation in the investigation and visited the casualties in hospital.
But there was puzzlement in Washington at a statement by Yemeni television that "the President clarified [to Ms Albright] that preliminary information indicates that the incident was not a deliberate act".
The US issued a worldwide travel alert, warning Americans to increase their security.